November 25, 2017
Dear <First Name>,
2017 has been a year of ups and downs for death penalty
abolitionists in Virginia.
VADP worked on an extensive clemency campaign on behalf of
Ivan Teleguz who had an execution date in April. The evidence
used against him was weak, based almost entirely on the word of
three felons who received favorable treatment in exchange for
their testimony. There were real doubts about his guilt.
Hundreds of VADP supporters like you sent messages to the
Governor asking him to grant clemency to Teleguz, reducing his
death sentence to life in prison without parole. We helped the
Virginia Council of Churches to organize a clergy press conference
and procession to the Governor’s office to deliver letters from
religious leaders asking for clemency.
VADP also worked with a national conservative group to get
Virginia Republicans and Libertarians to sign a letter to the
Governor urging clemency. This conservative sign-on letter
generated significant media coverage. In fact, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch quoted extensively from the letter in a lead
editorial urging the Governor to grant clemency.
Thankfully, Governor McAuliffe did grant clemency. Now
Teleguz and his legal team have time to prove his innocence.
We only had a few weeks to savor that victory before having
to gear up for another major clemency campaign for Will Morva, a
troubled young man sentenced to death for slaying a hospital
security guard and a sheriff’s deputy during an escape from
custody for a minor offense.
In many respects, the Morva case illustrates the need for our
legislative initiative to exempt people with severe mental illness
from capital punishment. There was ample evidence that Morva’s
mental condition deteriorated sharply in the years before his
violent actions. Despite a strong clemency campaign that VADP
actively supported, the Governor allowed the execution to take
place in July.
In this past year’s session of the Virginia General Assembly,
VADP and its allies won increased support from legislators for the
SMI exemption bill. Del. David Albo, the chair of the House
Courts of Justice Committee, urged the bill’s passage.
Unfortunately, we fell one vote short of success in the House
Criminal Law Subcommittee. With one more vote, we had the support
to pass the bill out of committee and have a debate on the floor
of the House of Delegates.
That brings me to another success that VADP achieved this
past year. Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Catholic Sisters of
Bon Secours and matching support from people like you, we were
able to hire Dale Brumfield as VADP Field Director in late May.
Since late May, Dale has spent time in places where VADP has
few, if any, members — Martinsville, Danville, Chatham, Moneta,
Galax, Elkton, Shenandoah, Winchester, and Lebanon.
Dale’s job is to meet with civic, business, religious, &
political leaders in key Senate & House legislative districts,
mostly in western and southern parts of the state. His objective
is to identify local business, religious, and civic leaders who
support the SMI exemption bill.
So far he has met with over 80 key people in those districts.
to get these new local allies to meet with their
Delegate or Senator before the 2018 General Assembly session.
Each of these legislators will vote on the SMI bill and eventually
on abolition.
Nothing comes easily for us. The recent election will change
the make-up of key committees in the House of Delegates. We won’t
know if this change will be for better or worse until committee
assignments are made in January.
Our goal is to still run a death penalty abolition bill in
the 2020 session of the General Assembly. And we need our good
friends, the capital defenders, to keep up their remarkable streak
of no new death sentences which is now over six years long!
The road ahead will be challenging. Virginia’s death row is
likely to be emptied one way or another in the next two years. We
will have a compelling argument for abolition if there is no one
on death row & there have been no death sentences in eight years.
This strategy demands that VADP build more support for
abolition among key local leaders in legislative districts in the
southern and western parts of Virginia.
Our objective is to raise $200,000 in 2018 — an increase of
$50,000 over the current year. If successful, we will be able to
hire another field organizer to join Dale in those key legislative
districts.
With your continued support, we will reach that short-term
goal and, in a few years, become the first southern state to
abolish the death penalty.
I ask you to return a generous VADP contribution using the
form and envelope provided. Only with your support can we hire a
second full-time grassroots field worker to find new supporters.
That’s why I urge you to renew -- and even increase --
your financial support today.
To abolish the death penalty in Virginia, we need your
generous tax-deductible gift returned in the envelope provided as
soon as you can. (You can also give with your credit or debit
card at our secure web site: www.vadp.org “Donate”. )
With thanks,
Michael Stone
Executive Director
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